


Transfixed by Silver

by bibobobonnor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:48:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25580836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibobobonnor/pseuds/bibobobonnor
Summary: Instead of asking Luna as just friends, Harry bites the bullet and actually asks her to be his date to Slughorn's Christmas party. Meanwhile Ron and Hermione have been trapped in the boys' dorm until they can work out their issues.
Relationships: Lavender Brown/Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

chapter 1

"She's a bit upset" Luna said. "I thought, at first, it was Moaning Myrtle in there, but it turned out to be Hermione. She said something about that Ron Weasley..." Luna observed as Hermione hurried off, still sobbing.

To anybody who'd yet to meet the oddly charming and eccentric, silver eyed Ravenclaw, it might have appeared that Luna was insulting Hermione or making fun of her, but Harry had come to understand that Luna simply had no filter of any kind, which played a significant role in her reputation at Hogwarts for better or worse.

"Yeah, they've had a row" Harry said tiredly, having had about enough of Ron.

"He says very funny things sometimes, doesnt he?" Luna asked as they headed down the corridor

"But he can be quite unkind" She added on, a brief, sober and quite un-Luna-like expression crossing her face for a moment.

Harry could only shake his head at that

"You don't know the half of it" he grumbled.

For years Harry had looked on as his friends played an awkward dance around each other and now Ron was being an idiot gallivanting off with some other girl, leaving Hermione either sad or angry, or both, frequently, and Harry was about ready to either drown Ron in the Black Lake or ward them both into a classroom to work things out. It was here that Luna's voice broke into his thoughts.

"You're probably right I'd be more likely to know a quarter or an eighth or a sixteenth of it" Luna mused dreamily.

Harry just smiled, if anybody could help cheer him up in his bad mood, it was the blonde Ravenclaw walking next to him, just then something occurred to him and was out of his mouth without a second thought.

"How would you like to come to Slughorn's party with me tonight?"

Harry had a hopeful look on his face. It was perfect, he knew Luna, they got along and he wouldn't have to go stag and have people laugh at him, while being reminded he didn't have Ginny and Dean did.

"Slughorn's party? With you?" she looked excited, surprised and dreamy all at the same time.

"I mean yeah, we're supposed to bring guests, and you're my friend, and..."

Harry's voice trailed off for a second as he caught her protuberant eyes, which seemed to have lost a little of their normal dreamy glow.

It felt like he'd kicked a puppy, it hadn't even occurred to him that she might think he was asking her as a date, but it really should have been obvious, perhaps this was why Snape called him a dunderhead sometimes.

Really he'd simply never considered her as anything other than odd, quirky, uniquely clever Luna, and he'd been so wrapped up in his own Romantic/Voldemort drama for the past two years that it was hard to blame himself too much. That said, Luna was quite intelligent, clever, had a blunt way about her speech that often left people unsure if she was being completely serious or not, which she generally was and she'd also possibly insulted you without changing her tone, which was always hilarious, but most of all she had absolutely no care in the world for what people thought of her, which Harry was quite glad for, because half the school still either hated him or hated to be seen with him after all the lies being spread in the Daily Prophet, but not Luna. Harry had come to a decision.

"I need a date" he said confidently.

If possible her eyes got even more dreamy than before

"I'd love to be your date" she almost beamed

"And I can get my eyebrow done just like yours, so people know we're there together" she said excitedly.

"Now I just have to look in my formal wear, maybe I'll use the dress I got for the Yule Ball when Michael Fitzburg pretended to ask me" she says matter of factly, skipping down the hall.

Harry looked after her with a confused grin on his face, then he caught his reflection in a suit of armour, groaning, apparently Luna had seen his yellow eyebrow from Transfiguration and thought it was some kind of fashion statement. Oh well, this should be interesting he thought wistfully, a smille on his face.

A/N: Read and Review please, this is my first fic in years, hope I did an okay job, I know it's a tad short.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: There's no way I could keep this a one shot, I'm just as interested as you in what might happen here.

Chapter 2

Harry's newfound cheer was quelled somewhat when he came face to face with Hermione in the common room. She was dressed up, not quite so extravagantly as her entrance at the Yule Ball, but enough to turn the heads of several Gryffindor boys leaving for Slughorn's party. It was clearly a ploy, as was her asking Cormac, whom a blind pygmy puff could tell was not her type. It wasn't as if Harry felt he had any right to tell her what to do, she was her own person and Ron was being a certifiable dick, but this continuous drama needed to end, and he was going to end it.

His mind made up, Harry grabbed Hermione by the hand and dragged her up the stairs towards the boys dormitories, ignoring her resistance and protests with a determined look on his face. Arriving at the entrance to his dorm, he was relieved to see Ron there, sulking about his exclusion from the nights festivities, as expected.

"Harry-Get your hands-Let me go" Hermione fumed at his side

"No this is getting sorted now, I'm having no more of this until you prats can work something out that let's me and all our friends have a little peace for once!" he admonished.

With that, as an annoyed and confused argument began to break out between his friends, Harry gathered up his dress clothes, grabbed a small wooden box from his trunk and, before they had time to realize exactly what he was doing, he slammed the door, sealed it with his wand and opened the wooden box, removing several, rune covered tiles which, after placement, quickly adhered to the wooden surface of the door. A fun little piece of magical engineering devised by Fred and George, because any idiot, and especially someone far from being an idiot, like Hermione could unseal a door, but these runes bonded to the door and, working with the original Colloportus incantation, oscillated randomly between, not only that commonly known incantation, but a number of variants to it as well as countless other useful, but outdated locking spells, making it so the counter-incantation was never the same for more than a tenth of a second.

Both Hermione and Ron quickly came to realize their dilemma and were pounding on the door like some poor trapped muggles with their wands rendered quite ineffective for the time being, the rune's secondary effect having reached the windows by this point.

"You two are fixing this one way or another" Harry yelled through the door.

When the response was continued profanity from his red haired best mate and Hermione attempting to scold him as best she could without being able to glare at him, Harry just shook his head and began walking away.

"Clearly you two need to calm down before you can sit down and have a nice chat about things" Harry snickered, making them even more irate.

After asking to use of the 5th year dorm to quickly change, and he was very glad Colin was not there at the moment, Harry headed out of the common room towards the entrance hall, instructing all his housemates, especially his dormmates not to let Hermione and Ron out of that room until they'd made some sort of peace with each other. Given how tired a number of his classmates were with the immature actions of both their mutual friends, most agreed to comply and those who didn't technically agree generally just laughed and shook their heads.

The attention was mainly on him as he entered the entrance hall, but a lot of attention was being given to the blonde haired girl with one yellow eyebrow and a spangled silver dress, it matched her eyes, he thought for a second. Momentarily containing a furious blush at that train of thought, he strode his way over to her, a number of jealous glares and disappointed sighs coming his way from the girls and a boy or two waiting for their dates.

"Hi" Harry said "Shall we get going then" he continued, linking his arm with hers and leaving the annoying looks and gossiping whispers behind, to head towards Slughorn's dungeon office.

"Oh yes" she said happily, dreamy eyed as ever while he whisked her down the corridor, slowing their pace once the commotion was behind them.

They arrived at the party after a short discussion on Minister Scrimgeour's status as a vampire, while Harry didn't actually think the Minister was a vampire, a blood sucking creature purported to take advantage of vulnerable humans, especially youthful individuals was quite the apt metaphor Harry thought. And if anything half the stuff the Prophet published was fictional anyways, so what did he care if the Quibbler's and Luna's theories were a bit out there.

The beginning of the evening had Slughorn's friend, Eldred Worple attempting, very enthusiastically to rope Harry into a deal for some sort of biography, which he sternly, but politely rejected, before excusing himself to entertain his date.

After that they had a run in with Trelawney, who was both drunk and bad mouthing Firenze, not only rude, but blatantly racist towards the kind centaur, only escaping into another social hostage situation of Slughorn's with Snape, who looked increasingly curious about Harry's newfound potions prowess, scrutiny he was only saved from after Luna sidetracked the conversation, bringing up the Aurors and the Rotfang conspiracy, and then Draco Malfoy was found gate crashing. A suspicious Harry was tempted to follow Malfoy, but didn't want to disappoint his date by cutting their evening short.

Escaping, finally to one of the few small tables lined along the far wall, and accepting some mead from one of the roving platters carried by the house elves, Harry and Luna simply sat for a moment sipping their drinks, enjoying the respite.

"Will any of your friends be joining us?" Luna inquired "I haven't seen Ronald or Hermione since the feast." she cast her gaze around almost absentmindedly.

This got a grin out of Harry "They have a few things to work out, they're having a chat back in the common room." Harry said, barely containing a snicker.

"That's good" she said, her voice serene, but containing a subtle note of relief.

"Those two have a wrackspurt infestation like you wouldn't believe" The blonde continued matter of factly "Fortunately wrackspurts hate reasonable discussion, it's why they make your brain all fuzzy"

Harry merely nodded amused at the predicament his friends were in and just a bit confused by Luna's musings, though in fairness there'd been some amount of logic to what she was talking about, even if it did sound a bit odd.

"So tell me more about this Rotfang Conspiracy." Harry asked, small talk wasn't always his strong-suit and Luna always seemed to have some interesting, if sometimes confusing thing to talk about, so he let her take the lead

"It's all quite complex and calculated she began" excitedly "As I've already told you the Minister is a vampire himself the press is just covering it up..."

Luna went on about how some secret and suppressed studies into dark magic and human diseases, both muggle and magical, had led to the discovery that dark magic was virtually irremovable from a certain type of gum disease which just so happened to be common in the the elderly members of Wizengamot and Ministry as well as vampires like Scrimgeour. When Harry politely tried to question her on the authenticity of these claims she simply supplied the names of a number of different authors and books on a spare piece of parchment and said if he wanted to do his own research, he was welcome. It was a refreshing and somewhat surprising reaction compared to the irritated defensive one she normally gave Hermione's skepticism, then again, Hermione was none too polite when she expressed her disagreement.

Later that night, as things began to wind down, there were still a few people mingling, including Slughorn who was very drunk, conversing loudly with an also very drunk Eldred Worple and some 6th and 7th years slow dancing on the wide open, near empty dance floor. Harry and Luna had mainly spent their evening, either socializing with their friends when they came by, discussing the Quibbler and Luna's theories on magical society as well as some quite intriguing theories she had pertaining to theoretical and practical magic, most of which went completely over Harry's head, she was in Ravenclaw for a reason. They also discussed Harry's life, his annoying friends, his friends when they weren't being annoying, Quidditch, his desire to be an auror, everything he was allowed to share about his troubles with Voldemort, Dumbledore or Snape, his past, his parents, and briefly about Luna's mother too, but she didn't stay long on that subject, appearing to prefer enjoying the pleasant atmosphere of the party to replaying that tragedy, which Harry, of all people, could understand.

Now they could be found moving gently to the music, on the now, mostly bare, dance floor. Harry had waited for one of the slowest, easiest songs to dance to for fear of making a fool of himself, not that he should have worried, as Luna had some pretty unique dances of her own. When they'd come together in a delicate slow dance Harry had felt peaceful, finally, not only was he glad that he finally had a night free of the constant bickering in the background, Luna was a truly fascinating, intelligent and genuine person, and he was very happy he'd asked her. Neither talked, just swaying to the music, appreciating the company and affection the other showed with their eyes. It was as he was admiring the fathomless deep pools that were her silver eyes, any thoughts of Ginny and Dean far from his mind by this point, that he noticed something above his head, mistletoe, his breath caught.

"It's probably filled with gnargles." Luna mused "It's why I wear this." she said, bringing a hand up to her show her necklace of butter beer corks. This action brought the necklace into view, but also brought the two even closer.

For a moment Harry was flustered, but noticing her one, yellow eyebrow, he couldn't help but smile, thinking of his matching brow, she'd wanted to match him even when he looked like a complete idiot. With that warm feeling, looking back into her silvery eyes and recalling this whole wonderful evening that brought him closer to the witch in from him, he closed the distance between them. It was a short, but sweet kiss, initially surprised Luna was completely motionless, but relaxed into it, her lips moving slowly and gently with his before they soon broke apart.

"That was enjoyable" Luna said, with an even more faraway look than normal, completely understating the flurry of sensations and emotions that just had and were continuing to go through his mind.

"Um, yeah" Harry said, slightly dumbstruck and smiling goofily.

Both still kind of dazed, they walked towards the office door and headed out, Harry almost swearing he saw a certain house elf with tennis ball-like green eyes and floppy ears carrying some sprigs of mistletoe, out of the corner of his eye.

They walked in comfortable silence, hand in hand up towards Ravenclaw Tower. Luna got to show him how their riddle password system worked and she left Harry with a quick peck on the lips, before hurrying into her common room, eyes beaming like headlights.

Harry began a happy almost skip back to the Gryffindor common room, he'd have to see How Ron and Hermione were doing by now.

A/N: Read and Review I'm excited to hear what you have to say.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Now let's see what's going on with our resident redhead chess master and greatest witch of her age.

Chapter 3

Hermione was stumped, and when Hermione was stumped, that generally meant Ron was stumped too, because unless it had something to do with chess or strategy, she generally outmatched his intelligence academically. Hermione had determined what was wrong with the door, but that got her no closer to freedom. There were upwards of 300 different locking charms and 50 different strengthening or unbreakable charms alternating ten times every second on the door and windows, so even if she knew exactly which spell to cast at exactly which time, she wouldn't have the time to cast it before it was useless. She just groaned in frustration, this had to be the twins handiwork, they were greatly immature, but they were quite clever and ingenious when they wanted to be.

"You can give up" Ron said.

"I'm pretty sure I remember what Harry had in that box. It's a quartz runic tile sequence or something like that, the twins were telling Harry about it. It's not just the door and windows, it's the walls too, it's designed to nonviolently contain, and it's powered by the residual magic of the structure, only deactivating if removed from the outside or if mortal peril is detected on the inside by the sensory runes. And I mean mortal peril, a small fire won't do, so unless we want to destroy the place, we're stuck." Ron explained to an increasingly annoyed Hermione.

"Well that's just bloody great" she grumbled earning a surprised look from Ron, at the profanity, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Well Harry's at the party until late, and probably told people to steer clear of this place if I know the bastard, so we might as well relax for the moment, not much we can do" Ron reasoned.

Hermione still looked irritated, but that had more to do with the imprisonment than it did with Ron's point, which was fair.

"Well if I'd known I'd be stuck in here with you all night, I'd have brought Lavender along to keep your mouth company."

Ron bristled at this.

"Don't even start with me on that again, I know all about your little thing with Mclaggen, the showboating ponce."

Hermione's cheeks tinged red.

"That's rich coming from the Quidditch nut standing in front of me, and not even a good Quidditch nut, the Cannons haven't won a cup since 1892."

Before he could make a retort, she continued.

"And don't even try to pull that crap on me." She yelled, getting up in his face "You have been nothing but a ponce to me and everybody else who will put up with your perpetual bad mood and cranky, jealous attitude, I got the brunt of it, but your insults, bullying, and profoundly sexist attitude need to stop."

She backed down and breathing deeply, she took a seat on one of the beds, eyes on the verge of tears between anger, sadness and confusion at the flurry of other emotions going through her mind.

"I don't want to go to any social event with that self-obsessed pretty boy, but that doesn't mean what you've done hasn't hurt me, because we both know that relationship is mostly kissing at this point and it's not like you cared about her, but to get some petty, immature revenge on me, who was going to ask you in the first place before you started acting like a jealous lunatic."

Ron took this in soberly. They'd been fighting for months, but never had she shown so much distress and vulnerability, of course that was probably because they fought in public corridors and he'd normally left before the tears began, he thought guiltily.

"I'm sorry" he said.

Receiving an unconvinced look, he continued.

"I mean, yeah I was jealous and frustrated and stupid and confused, but I can work on all that"

She gave a ghost of a smile

"And true, you're mostly right about Lavendar, but don't be cruel, she's just as human as us, even if she's fashion obsessed, and she is a lovely girl with a charming personality, whom I have spoken to and enjoyed the company of when my lungs weren't being used as her air supply."

Hermione actually cracked a shy grin at this.

What I'm trying to say is, I was jealous and stupid and I lashed out, but I'm sorry and I can work on my faults" he says with a look of determination, followed by one of humour.

"You seem to know a lot about my faults, I'm sure you can work up a study schedule for me to work on myself."

She actually laughed at this.

"What do you say?" he said, putting out his hand "Friends?"

Hermione looked up at him getting a devious look on her face.

"Alright Won Won" she said, shaking Ron's hand, and laughing at the look on his face.

When Harry arrived at the end of the night he found that his dorm had been unsealed, which didn't surprise him, one because he knew his classmates would want to use their beds eventually and two, because he'd seen Ron and Hermione sitting in two arm chairs, facing the fire, sleeping peacefully. He really hoped he wasn't entirely misreading the situation.

A/N: I think that turned out pretty well, better than I expected actually.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: And now, the morning after, for everybody.

Chapter 4

Harry really should have expected to wake up bound by magic resistant ropes, it really should have been obvious. He'd done what he had to do the previous evening, but he'd also messed with a Weasley and that always had consequences, most likely consequences he wasn't going to like.

The Redhead in question was smiling down at Harry maniacally.

"Good morning you messy haired git."

Hopeless to move or escape Harry just kept a straight face, slightly amused face.

"Well how was your evening my dear friend Ronald, anything exciting."

"Oh you laugh now, but you locked Hermione in this room to, and we did make up with each other."

Hermione walks up from behind Ron with an equally and disturbingly maniacal grin.

"But we aren't terribly certain we've both forgiven you yet."

She continues holding up a very familiar wooden box, containing delicate, intricately carved and marked, translucent quartz tiles.

With the ropes still binding him and the two laughing, there was not much Harry could do to stop their revenge plan.

Once the door was sealed Ron yelled a phrase through the wood which prompted the ropes holding his arms and legs to loosen.

"Oh yeah, that's much better." he ground out sarcastically, only to receive continued snickers from his friends.

He was the one that wanted them to get along, and here they were getting along. After finishing a good portion of his homework, that which didn't require any references from the library, Harry laid back on his bed bored. Unfortunately his current trap was fairly iron-clad, magically speaking. Yes the runes did include emergency release phrases, but he'd only used them the once and hadn't taken the time to learn them, much to his current chagrin.

He thought about how Luna was doing, and hoped she didn't think Harry was avoiding her out of embarrassment or something like that. He remembered how amazingly endless her eyes seemed to be, the sheen to her soft platinum hair, and the fiery jolt that went through him when her lips were beneath his. Harry let out a contented sigh, staring at the ceiling, wishing he could be with her now.

His mind then turned to Dobby, who he was pretty sure he'd seen carrying mistletoe on his way out, giving Harry many suspicions as to how the mistletoe had ended up above him and his date in the first place, not that he really cared, he'd probably thank the little guy. Just then Harry bolted upright.

"Dobby!"

A soft pop had an energetic, floppy eared elf, in official Hogwarts tea towel appearing at the head of the bed.

"What can Dobby being doing for the Great Harry Potter sir." The elf intoned eagerly.

"I've told you Dobby, it's just Harry, no Potter sir, No great, just Harry, but I've gotten myself in a bit of a bind, I just need you to remove the runes from the other side of that door"

A few snaps and a pop later had his dorm no longer his cell.

"You will always be my favourite elf Dobby." Harry's brows went up a second.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to give you your Christmas gift" Harry said to a shocked looking elf.

"The Great Harry Potter is needing to give nothing to Dobby sir, your heroism is more than enough."

Harry just shook his head at the unasked worship "Well you're working at Hogwarts now and earning a wage so I figured you might need a wallet." Harry supplied removing a small, black leather wallet from his trunk.

"It can hold up to one hundred galleons at a time and it's charmed against theft" He supplied in description, as the elf took the item delicately in his small hands.

"Dobby is most appreciative si-Harry" the elf said barely containing his excitement, bouncing up and down, before excusing himself to help the other elves with Lunch.

Harry's stomach reminded him that he'd not had anything to eat today except a few chocolate frogs scavenged from Ron's trunk, so after quickly showering and changing, he headed down to the great hall.

Immediately on entering Harry was looking up and down the Ravenclaw table for the familiar mane of long blonde hair.

It didn't take long before he found her, purple and lime green tend to stand out in a crowd.

She looked to be in low spirits which worried him, so he waved at her as he walked over. Upon seeing him there was much more light to her eyes.

"Harry! I thought a king gnargle had somehow gotten to you, I was so worried, I should have made you a cork necklace like mine she got out in rapid fire."

"It's alright, nothing that sinister, I was locked in my dorm, please tell me more about gnargles, especially these king gnargles"

Luna smiled, then began a long-winded, but engaging explanation on the variety of magical mites and sprites that surrounded people unseen on a daily basis. It was difficult, she mentioned, for most people to understand and even harder for some people to accept that there were entire layers to the magical world that the average wizard was unable to see. Harry was reminded of the many muggle scientists whose theories had been dismissed as complete bunk, that today were fundamental rules in the field. Luna and her father might very well be just those kinds of people. It also occurred to Harry just how lazy magic had made wizarding society as a whole, given that muggles had devised totally mundane technology that could imitate a large amount of the things wizards relied on magic for. Magic gave wizards an edge, and if they'd properly taken advantage of that edge, magical technology should outskirt the muggle world by centuries, but instead they sat almost technologically equal and decades behind in reforming government and social policy.

After lunch the two went for a walk along the lake, towards the Thestral herds enclosed near the edge of the forest. Up until his 5th year it had always confused Harry when he saw Hogwarts' small stables and the adjacent field were always empty. He had originally assumed that Hogwarts used to keep horses and had since stopped the practice, likely at the same time muggles stopped using them as commonly, which could very well also be true, but no, this was where the Thestrals were kept.

Harry smiled, Luna had been the one to explain to him that he wasn't crazy and hallucinating when he first saw the Thestrals.

"Thestrals have been a subject of wide debate for years" Luna began "some say they're evil, dangerous omens, some say they're just skeletal horses and the death thing is just one of those ineffable qualities of magic, and even others still think they're a myth or elaborate hoax"

Harry listened to her go on to Thestrals place in history and mythology, remembering last year when Harry, Luna and the rest of their rag tag team had flown these steeds to the ministry, Ron absolutely terrified of flying on what he saw as thin air.

They were standing, stroking one of the misunderstood creatures while chatting about the unique festivities at last night's party, especially when Worple had to reign in his vampire friend, when Luna thought of something.

"Did your friends ever work things out" she asked

"Oh, yeah, they cleared things up alright" Harry said with a grin

She nodded and looked up at him, suddenly the closest thing to nervousness that he'd seen on Luna's face was present and he was confused as to what would be worrying her all of a sudden.

"So we're leaving for the Christmas holidays tomorrow" she began, twisting here hands a little.

"and father and I spend most winters at home, and I was wondering" she continued slowly, almost uncertain of herself, so he cut her off.

"Of course I'd like to visit" he said grinning at her "I just have to learn more about the mystical Luna Lovegood, what better place to do my research" he said with a smile.

He was soon wrapped tightly in her arms, blonde hair sticking up his nose almost making him sneeze.

"That's great Harry, I'm so excited, I can show you my sighting pictures for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack and we can go fishing for fresh water plimpies, and we can read that treatise on democracy in the magical world." she gushed as they headed up to the castle, sharing a quick kiss before they headed for their respective towers to pack for the next day's train journey.

A/N: I hope that was interesting enough, I'm still trying to think up a proper direction for this story. I'm excited to hear your reviews so far.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Now to check on relations between the drama king of Gryffindor and our favourite bookworm

Chapter 5

It took a good four hours before a passing Gryffindor seventh year, a bit tipsy off mead from Slughorn's party, finally took pity on the pair stranded in the sixth year boys dormitory. Hermione was reading and Ron was getting a jump on his holiday homework, at her urging, after she'd lost her fourth game of chess to him, then a subtle, but encompassing pulse, went through the air from all directions, as the defensive spells acting on every outer surface, were disengaged. The knob finally turned signalling their freedom.

"Oh thank bloody fucking hell" Ron bellowed

"Ron!" Hermione scolded

"Hey if you can curse so can I" Ron defended himself

She glared at him

"There is such a thing as doing something in moderation" she quipped back, walking to the door, taking the tiles from a swaying seventh year boy, their prefect she noted sadly.

"Too much mead Jeffrey?"

The boy simply nodded and shuffled his way along to his own dorm.

Hermione was hungry, she knew there'd be food at the party and didn't want to eat too much at dinner, and Ron was hungry all the time so that made this a simple idea.

"Hey Ron, I'm getting a snack from the kitchens, wanna come along?"

Ron looked confused "It's the middle of the night and rules, rules, rules Hermione wants to go wandering around the castle, aren't you worried about detention"

Hermione nodded, having thought of this "Don't worry, I was invited to Slughorn's party, if we're caught I can say we were on our way back, I'd take you to the party, but we might run into that showboating ponce Mclaggen" she winked at him.

Ron's stomach replied for him and they were soon out the portrait hole and sneaking their way down to the kitchens. While Hermione still had her qualms with the labour of these elves, they didn't take kindly to having their work taken away and were always in high spirits, so Hermione simply did her best to treat them as humanely and courteously as possible, a point she'd just been discussing with Ron. The concept of the creatures as slaves was still somewhat foreign to the boy, not only because he'd grown up around them, but because he hadn't been overly exposed to the concept of human slavery and the barbarity behind it, Hermione had a lot to teach the him.

When they'd gathered what they needed or what they could carry in Ron's case, they made their way back to the common and set up a small table in between two arm chairs by the fire. Munching down on their improvised meal they discussed recent events.

"Like I said earlier, you need to get over your hate for Lavendar, she was actually quite fun to be around before all the kissing and while that was fun, we kind of need to get back to the talking" Ron explained.

"Who are you and what have you done with Ronald Weasley?" Hermione grinned.

Ron just glared at her "I'm serious, I do like her, sure I was trying to make you jealous, but I do like her. We both know our Quidditch, even if part of her enjoyment is the drama between the famous players, she's actually quite helpful and not a condescending skeptic when it comes to Divination, (she just glared at him) and she's a harder opponent at chess" he finished with an evil grin.

"You take that back!" Hermione swatted him on the shoulder.

"Fine you're about evenly matched" he acquiesced, but this didn't seem to assuage her.

"If you could just keep the pda to a minimum around me please" she requested.

"I can probably work on that yeah" he blushed sheepishly

There was a sound from the portrait hole and Ron, managing to get a quick look, noticed it was Harry and motioned to Hermione to feign sleep as he passed. Once he was out of ear shot they both got up with evil grins on their faces.

"I've got some rope" Ron said.

"I've still got the runes, we can use them tomorrow" Hermione added.

A/N: I know it's short, but I'm still brainstorming new plot points, might need to ruminate on this story for few days now. Please review, I'm always interested to know what people think.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: On to the holidays, I think all of us could use some holiday cheer right about now.

Chapter 6

Despite the dark times, Hogwarts was doing it's best to keep with the season, the grandeur that always had been the Hogwarts express was decorated to the brim with with wreaths, mistletoe, candy-canes, and other such ornaments, a wholehearted attempt to distract the student body from the fact that their society was on the brink of war. To the credit of the faculty, it was helping a bit. With all the mistletoe present Luna and Harry were back on the subject of gnargles, which they had touched on the other day, but Luna was now describing how they could be viewed, and also why it was so difficult to detect them.

"The reason that gnargles and most other species of magical mite are so difficult to see is not, because they're invisible, it's because they're mostly composed of magic and have a very small physical presence"

At Harry's extremely quizzical look, she just laughed and asked.

"You know bacteria?"

"Um, Yeah?" Harry said, a bit unsure where this line of discussion was headed.

"Well gnargles are kind of like bacteria, except magical, hive bacteria, held together by naturally formed fields of magic. In fact, a good deal of magical mites, gnargles, wrackspurts and the like, aren't mites at all, but hives of magical bacteria, creating various different types of magical fields, resulting in their different behaviour."

This actually made a lot of sense to Harry, he might have to see what Hermione thought of it sometime.

"In order to see their magical aura, you need to find a sample of the host bacteria and then make sure your viewing apparatus matches that magical signature. Spectrespecs are designed to see a certain variety of wrackspurt, but there are actually hundreds of different varieties."

Harry couldn't help the look of awe on his face. Assuming all this stuff was true, the Hogwarts curriculum was extremely lacking in it's depth and scope, but it really should have been obvious when it was already lacking a number of the core subjects found in muggle secondary schools. Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Luna, what you describe is quite reasonable, why is it that this information hasn't been picked up and taught by the magical school systems."

Luna smiled at this, happy to have piqued Harry's interest.

"Aside from simple skeptics, it is largely connected to closed minds, as well as political and social superiority" At Harry's questioning look she continued

"If you haven't already noticed Harry, a large portion of wizarding society view themselves as not only better than muggles, but all other magical beings as well, going so far as to deny Goblins, House elves and other sentient magical creatures the right to carry a wand, now imagine it wasn't just those creatures the ministry had to acknowledge, but a vast array of interconnected, almost invisible magical lifeforms, some even complex and sentient, living in the air around us. To them it's easier to pretend it doesn't exist."

This gave Harry pause for thought, and all he could respond with was

"That's a lot to consider."

"Indeed" Luna nodded

"So" Harry said

"Want to talk about that treatise on democracy?"

Luna smiled "The book will help with a more full introduction, but the fundamental concept is that democracy can't properly exist in the magical world until all sentient beings are capable of negotiating on their own terms, without any restrictions on their liberty or magical practice..." Luna began to an already rapt Harry, she really was amazingly knowledgeable.

Once at the Weasley's things were much nicer than they'd been in previous weeks at Hogwarts. The auror guard didn't necessarily help the mood, but once they were safely tucked behind the wards of the Burrow everyone was more at ease and able to enjoy the Holiday cheer. Hermione would be spending the week before Christmas at the Burrow and Christmas and the following week with her family. She and Ron could now be found chatting with in the dining room of the Burrow over hot chocolate.

"My god Ronald, you can't seriously tell me that you've delayed this long in finding a gift for your girlfriend that you supposedly do like" she rolled her eyes.

"I came to you for advice, I have tried, I just need help, in my defense I've also been a tad distracted lately" Ron returned.

"Distracted would be the wrong word" Hermione mumbled into her mug.

"Pardon" Ron's eyebrow rose.

"You haven't been dating long, but it is Christmas, so get her something nice, but not too serious" she got out quickly

Ron was still unsure "That sounds simple in theory, but that could be anything"

Hermione just laughed, "What does she like, what would she care about, it has to be thoughtful"

Ron considered a while before coming to an idea when he saw a fox scurrying along the edge of the forest.

"I'll get her a bunny" he said.

"A bunny?" Hermione's eyebrows raised questioningly

"Yeah, she prefers using the school owls and she hasn't had a pet since that fox killed her rabbit Binky in third year, I think it'll make her happy." he smiled

Hermione grinned "Look at you acting all mature and sensitive." she teased.

Ron's ears tinged red, but he simply nodded, sipping his drink.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that. I'll try to get some Harry/Luna and Ron/Lavender in next chapter. As always, please review, I love to hear your feedback as much as you like to read my story.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I noticed I cut off the end of my last chapter, it's updated now so you can finish it off. Anyways, on with the story.

Nobody had to actually be in the room to know just when Ron presented his girlfriend with her gift, Lavender's squeal could be heard all the way up the staircase of the Burrow, even managing to disturb the ghoul in the attic.

"Merlin, he's so cute, look at those tiny little whiskers" She gushed, nuzzling the little puff ball.

Before Ron could respond, her arms were crushing the air from his lungs.

"Oh Won Won, you're the best" she beamed, an ear to ear smile spread across her face.

Ron had to contain a bit of irritation as the twins dramatically mimed Lavender behind her back, but didn't let it ruin his good mood. And he was in even higher spirits when he got his own gift. Unwrapping the red and gold paper, he revealed a Nimbus adaptable training quaffle. Charmed similarly to a bludger, but much less violent, training quaffles were designed to help teach beginning keepers the basics of blocking. An adaptable training quaffle was more advanced and capable of learning the defensive abilities of individual keepers, so they could aim at identified weak points, gradually strengthening the player's guard.

The twins, still snickering a bit, lost it even more at the almost-squeal that Ron himself let out in excitement. It was a ripple effect that had the whole room chuckling at Ron's enthusiasm. Ron, however, barely noticed, marveling at the craftsmanship and rapturously reading the manual like Hermione might revise for a final exam. Ron was on his way to the broom shed, dragging Lavender by the arm, Mrs. Weasley providing only half-hearted complaints about him not staying for the rest of the gift opening.

Harry was a bit nervous, he'd tried to go small, because they'd been together less than a week, but he couldn't help himself, when he discovered something rather expensive that he knew she'd love. It'd been while flipping through a charms-wear catalog that often advertised in the quibbler for things like the Spectrespecs, that he found the perfect gift. It was called a micro-mite ocular viewing device, designed to find and identify tiny magical critters, but it looked almost exactly like a muggle microscope aside from some extra knobs he couldn't determine the purpose of. Her eyes were wide, but not her usual far away wide, surprised, it was a bizarre look on her face, and Harry chuckled a bit.

"Well, do you like it?" he asked expectantly.

Luna, having finally composed herself, smiled.

"I love it and Daddy will go bonkers over it, he's been meaning to acquaint himself with the hidden world in our home for years." 

Then she looked a bit guilty.

"I feel a bit bad though, all I got you was a book on magical politics."

Harry only grinned.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll both get some great use out of this magical doohickey." he placated.

That got her spirits up and soon after everybody's presents were unwrapped and the paper vanished, Harry and Luna were in the garden, taking samples of earth and plants, seeing if they could find something.

A/N: That seems like a reasonable start to the Christmas holidays, while I brainstorm more story.


End file.
